Madeline McIntosh, one of the most powerful figures in American book publishing, is stepping down from her role as chief executive of Penguin Random House US, the company announced on Tuesday.

The announcement comes during a time of great turbulence for Penguin Random House, by far the US’s largest book publisher.

Markus Dohle, who was the chief executive of Penguin Random House, and McIntosh’s boss, resigned from his position in December.

The company also lost a bid last year to buy Simon & Schuster, a large rival publishing house, after the government successfully sued to stop the deal on antitrust grounds.

The deal’s collapse cost Penguin Random House a $200 million termination fee, in addition to enormous legal costs. Dohle had overseen the attempted acquisition.

McIntosh has been the head of Penguin Random House US since 2018. Before that, she held a variety of roles at the company, which she first joined almost 30 years ago. She also worked briefly at Amazon. Her departure was reported earlier in The Wall Street Journal.

In a memo to the company’s staff, McIntosh said she would not leave right away but would work with Nihar Malaviya, the interim chief executive of Penguin Random House, to ensure an orderly transition.

She said she had no concrete plans for what to do next. In an interview on Tuesday, she said that even though five years might seem like a short tenure as chief executive, it had been “an intense five years.”

“I don’t like the idea of sticking in one spot or doing one job forever,” she said.

McIntosh said that the collapse of the merger didn’t influence her decision to step down, but that after the trial’s conclusion, she felt ready to embark on a new phase of her career.

“It’s a really good inflection point for the company as well as for me,” she said.

“Having the trial behind us, having new leadership in place, it’s a good time for all of us to pivot our way forward.”

In a memo to the company, Malaviya acknowledged that “changes like this naturally create unease”.

He said he would move as quickly as possible to name a successor and would try to minimise disruptions to the company and its employees.

At trial last year, as Penguin Random House defended its bid to buy Simon & Schuster, the company revealed it had been losing market share in recent years and that it hoped that acquiring Simon & Schuster would help to recover some of the lost ground.

With that deal off the table, Penguin Random House will have to find another way to expand. There were also signs of tension between the company’s top executives at the trial.

During his testimony, Dohle was asked about a comment he made to colleagues that Penguin Random House had messed up its products following the 2013 merger.

The company remains a powerful force in the business. It publishes acclaimed literary novelists like Kazuo Ishiguro and Colson Whitehead, blockbuster authors like Dan Brown and E.L. James.

New York Times News Service